Of Monsters and Men is a folk/indie/pop group from Reykjavik, Iceland who is taking the world by storm. The six-piece band is made up of Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir (acoustic guitar, vocals), Arni Guojonsson (accordion, keys), Brynjar Leifsson (electric guitar), Kristjan Pall Kristjansson (bass), Ragnar Porhallsson (acoustic guitar, vocals), and Arnar Rosenkranz Hilmarsson (drums).

They were the winners of The Icelandic Music Experiments: Musiktilraunir, a nationwide Icelandic battle of the bands, where they received wide acclaim for their debut single, Little Talks. It’s catchy, upbeat fun song about two lovers being parted, that takes turns between female, male, and group vocals.  The band spent most of 2010 playing festivals and shows all over Iceland and Holland with requests to play gigs from the United States to England and Australia.

Last month, their first full-length album, My Head is an Animal, was released in Iceland but has yet to make its way to America. OM&M have been compared to the similar energy and sound of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Mumford & Sons, and The xx.

The ideas behind their band and album name as well as their song lyrics come from unique and intriguing stories the band members read in newspapers, online, or came across in some way involving monsters (fictional or living) and other strange things. Their lyrics are essentially stories about monsters or other creatures. “We’re just kind of inspired by the whole weirdness of everything,” Porhallsson said to Paste Magazine. This is definitely apparent in their song From Finner, which has a very ghostly, mythical Beowulf feel.

Have you ever felt that feeling of driving on a long road with only miles of woods on either side and the cool Autumn air in your face and through your hair against the backdrop of the deep blue and purple twilight sky? Well if you have, then you’ll know what I mean when I say that is the way to listen to OM&M’s “Love, Love, Love.”